From Lothal to Jedha
by Yeye anaawangazia
Summary: Ezra Bridger, in an alternate universe, makes the fateful decision to stow away on a star destroyer heading for Jedha. He quickly discovers the Empire's sinister plans for the Kyber crystals on the planet, and will team up with the famed, wise, and skilled, yet Blind Chirrut Imwe, and the other Guardians of the Whills, to stop this weapon of terror from being loosed on the Galaxy!
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1.**

"Man, that crate was really heavy. What the heck was in it concrete!?" the Imperial officer asked in a tired voice.

"How the heck should I know,?" Stormtroopers ZQ-176 responded with a shrug. "We don't ask questions we do our duty as soldiers of the Empire," he pointed out to the officer, named Exo Borealis.

"Guess you're right, let's get some grub."

The two grunts of the Imperial Fleet walked away. Once they disappeared, and the door to the armory closed, the crate they were carrying opened. Out of it stepped a 13 year old boy, with electric blue eyes and ocean blue hair.

"That was a close one, good going Ezra Bridger."

It hadn't been an easy decision to leave his home planet of Lothal and venture out into the dangerous wider Galaxy. It defines tell had taken all his guts for Ezra to stow away on a star destroyer to leave Lothal. Ezra had persuaded himself to go by reminding himself that with an unjust, undemocratic Empire in place, no planet was suitable or safe for anyone. That, and the fact that he couldn't contain his passion for exploration any longer. The universe was way bigger than Lothal and he was going to examine it, thoroughly.

It hadn't been hard to stow away on the star destroyer. All he'd had to do was steal an imperial com-link, say in a fake voice that there was a disturbance in a different part of town, then hide himself in weapons crate; after removing the weapons inside of course.

"All cargo secured, preparing the jump to hyperspace," the vessel's radio loudly announced to all it's passengers.

"I've got to see this," Ezra said to himself excitedly. He quickly climbed the stacks of crates, removed the cover of an air vent, and climbed inside. It only took him a few minutes to reach the bridge . He carefully remove the vent cover, and poked his head, upside down, out of ventilator shaft. He was just in time to see the beautiful sea of stars in outer space become white lines, which then became a fiery, blue, white tunnel. Ezra covered his mouth to prevent the 'Whoah' that wanted to escape it from doing so.

'I should have done this a long time ago' the son of Ephraim and Mira Bridger told himself, silently.

"We should reach Jedha in about three hours sir," captain Leif Daniels told his Admiral Nicholas Tessler.

Ezra was drawn away from his thoughts to the conversation.

"I can't wait until this special project of the Emperor's is finished. No one will dare stand against the might of out Empire when it's finished." The sadistic officer proudly told his right-hand man.

"When you think about it, the weapon is like a giant lightsaber, and it will do to a planet what a lightsaber would to to a person."

"That is the idea, isn't it."

The two men had no idea that an orphan, hiding in the vents above them, heard every sick word they were saying, and made a silent vow. Wherever, and whatever this 'project' was, he would find it, and he would destroy it. 'I will not allow the Empire to terrorize and mass murder the galaxy into submission.' the young Bridger thought to himself.

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In a grotto, on the arid world of Jedha, a blind yellow- skinned human male sat meditating. His friend, Baze Malbus, was outside, on guard. That man was Chirrut Imwe, blind since birth. He was a guardian of the whills, a group of people who worshipped the force but weren't force sensitive, adhered to the light side, and didn't follow Jedi or Sith Dogma. They believed that because the force flowed through all living things, anyone could learn to use it, not just force sensitives. And using it didn't always entail throwing things around. They also believed the force decided who lived and died, and that no man or thing decided his fate. As such, they trusted in the force, rather than their own abilities.

Chirrut's eyes, which had been closed for ten minutes, suddenly popped open.

"There is young visitor heading toward my home. I will greet him when he arrives."

 **I'll stop here for now folks, to keep you wanting more. In case you're wondering, both Jyn and Galen Erso will be making an appearance in this story!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The Imperial star destroyer emerged from hyperspace above Jedha. Ezra, still hidden in the vent, decided to head back to the armory and hide out, until the ship landed. He crawled back towards the armory, hearing the commander say" All troops prepare for landing." He reached the vent over top of the armory, and was about to climb back in, when two scout troopers walked in.

"Let's get this check for stowaways over with," one of the said. The other nodded in agreement. Ezra thought about waiting until they were done, but was impatient, and instead crawled through the the air cut to the hanger of the star destroyer. Upon reaching it, he beheld stormtroopers, tie pilots, and imperial mechanics working here and there. He knew if these evil doers landed on Jedha, it would not make a terrible situation any better. That was when he made the decision; he would bring down this destroyer. Crawling back through the vent, he peered down toward the armory, where the two scout troopers were still thoroughly checking the cargo for stowaways. From the vent opening, he shot both grunts with his electric slingshot They cried out in pain, and colapsed in a heap. He quckly got one of their blasters, and searched nearby crates for bombs. Fortunately for him, they were labeled. He stuffed his backpack full of small, disk-shaped, explosives, and held a detonator for them in his hand. He made sure to hide the troopers bodies in a crate of rifles before he left. After taking some of them out of course.

Ezra checked the Star destroyer holo schematic he stole, to determine the look and location of the life support systems on the destroyer. After finding it he crawled, quickly but quietly, toward the room where the life support was. This time, there were no pesky imperials to bother him. Probably because they were preparing for landing. Wasting no time, he planted the explosives on th glowing blue cylinders of the life support system, and then headed right back toward the vent.

An Imperial TIE pilot was busy checking the weapon systems on his ship, completely oblivious to his surroundings. So he didn't see it coming when Ezra landed, feet first, right on top of him. He checked to see if the trooper was unconscious; he was. The young Bridger then took the man's oversized helmet and oxygen tank, and jumped into the open cockpit. Studying his holo-schematic, he learned how to operate the TIE fighter, then started the ship, which was on the ground since it was being repaired. He piloted the ship into the air, the imperials noticing for the first time. Before they could do anything though, the blue haired orphan inside began firing at everything in sight; ships, personnel, the walls of the hangar, and the clamps for the TIE fighters. The Imperials were screaming in terror, but Ezra had no sympathy. They had terrorized his home world, Lothal, for too long. Payback is a bitch.

Once the hangar, and everyone in it, was destroyed, Ezra shot the shield generators of the hangar. Once the shield was down, his ship was sucked out, along with the dead bodies and destroyed ships. He quickly regained control of the ship. The emergency hangar doors automatically activated and sealed the hangar.

The Imperials on the bridge, heard and felt the hangar being destroyed. A few seconds into it, a stormtrooper radioed the bridge and said," We're under attack, sir! A TIE fighter has been hijacked, and it's , Aaah!" The trooper and his comm were annihilated.

"What the heck is going on Admiral Tessler."

"What you do think is going on, Captain Daniels?! We have a stowaway who stealing a TIE from us!"

A few second later, the two men saw their stolen ship leaving the west side of ship. "Open fire on that TIE immediately!" Tessler demanded. But before the pilots could fire the ships laser cannons, the son of Mira and Ephraim Bridger detonated the bombs. The star destroyers life support was destroyed, it's explosion rocked the ship, and all of the ships inhabitants eimmediately began to claw at their oxygen-deprived throats, especially Tessler and Daniels.

Ezra, meanwhile, kept flying the ship he stole toward the atmosphere. Once he penetrated it, the ship was surrounded by fire. It was fortunate that TIES had heat shields, even though they didn't have deflector shields. Ezra would be toast, literally, if it didn't.

It took him about five minutes to penetrate the atmosphere enough for the ship to stop burning. It took him a minute longer to safely land on the near barren surface of Jedha. He climbed up to the cockpit hatch, and looked up at the sky for about two minutes. The star destroyer then fell vertically out of the sky, toward the sandy ground, and exploded in a huge fireball, in only ten seconds. Ezra guessed that the suffocating Imperials had accidently turned off the ship's engines off.

"That was very impressive, young man," a voice said from behind Ezra, startling him into whirling around. He saw a clearly blind man, clean shaven, wearing a blue robe and white shirt, and riding a camel. He also had a stick with a metal top strapped to his back. Behind him, also on the camel, was a long haired bearded man, wearing red armor and carrying a big rifle.

"I don't think that us two adults, or even a team of us could have done what you did. You kick ass kid." He complimented.

As if sensing the blue mop-topped kid's question, the blind one said, " My name is Chirrut Imwe, and this my friend Baze Malbus. We are guardians of the Whills. We'll, one of us was." He looked toward his lifelong friends sadly, who cynically shrugged.

"Malbus lost his faith in the force after enduring the Empire's opression. I've retained mine."

"You're talking about the energy field that gives Jedi their powers, and surrounds all living things right?"

Chirrut nodded.

"My parents used to tell me all about the Jedi, their beliefs, and their exploits. When the Jedi were wiped out, my mom and dad, unlike the majority of the Galaxy, refused to believe the Jedi were traitors. Are you a Jedi?" Ezra inquired.

"He's not even force-sensitive," Baze Malbus spoke up. "But he believes firmly in the force, and that it decides everyone's fate. I don't agree with him, but I admire his faith." The grizzled war veteran smiled at his friend.

Chirrut explained to Ezra how he had been meditating and had a vision of the boy appearing on the desert world of Jedha. He believed it was the will of the force that they met. Ezra agreed, saying that the commander of the destroyer he took out had revealed the true sinister purpose behind taking Kyber crystals from Jedha, alarming the two resistance fighters immediately.

"It isn't safe to talk here, my son. Come back with us to our hideout."

Chirrut patted the spot in front of him on the camel, and Ezra, without a word, hopped on the desert beast. The trio turned around and started riding south towards their and their comrades hideout.

 **Author's note: I never understood how Ezra and Luke could know about the Jedi but not the Force. So Ezra knows about it in this story. Also, some of you make think Ezra overpowered in bringing down a star destroyer and stealing a tie fighter. It is the incompetence of the imperials, and the guidance of the force that enable him to do that. Also, yes, normal animals do exist in my version of the Star Wars universe.**


	3. Chapter 3

The blind monk, the armored, war- weary veteran with a huge gun, and the fourteen year old boy who not only stowed away on a star destroyer, but brought it down, rode on camels for about an hour through the arid environment of Jedha. Ezra could feel that the light-side of the force was strong with this planet. He'd asked Chirrut Imwe if Jedha was the home world of the Jedi, and he'd said no. That honor went to Ach too, a planet of lush green islands, where the first Jedi temple had been built. Jedha was named after the Jedi, and had been the headquarters, if you will, of the Jedi Order before a Sith Army on Coruscant was defeated. Their temple, except for the lower levels, had been destroyed, and a new Jedi temple built over it, to signify light suppressing dark. Afterwards, it was decided that this dwelling place, and the planet it was on, would be the home base for the Jedi. The Jedi had moved their base of operations several times to several planets; Achch to, Tython, Ossus, Illum, they even took over Exar Kun's Massasi Temples, after they defeated him of course, and remade them into Jedi Temples.

They at last came to what looked like a two hundred-foot termite mound. It had been designed to look that way, so as to ward off Imperials. Baze Malbus got off of his camel, walked up to the base of it, and knocked on it's mud brick door.

" What is the password," a Voice said from the other side.

"The force controls us, we don't control it," Baze replied, not at all believing those words. The door opened, and there stood a turquoise Feeorin. He looked at a certain Lothal orphan questioningly.

"Hello there Nemo, this is Ezra Bridger, a native of Lothal. He stowed away on a Star Destroyer coming here. More importantly than that, he discovered a sinister project of the Empire's, and actually managed to bring down the vessel!"

Nemo audibly gasped and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. He gave an incredulous look to the blue-haired orphan.

"We wouldn't have believed it either, if we hadn't seen it with our own eyes," Baze Malbus spoke up. Then his blind and still-faithful-to-the-force companion, Chirrut Imwe added, "The force is with him."

"Imperial incompetence is just as much,if not more, to blame for my success," Ezra interjected.

"Tell everyone to come out of there, and I'll explain it to them."

All three adults complied with the teenagers demand. They hollered for everyone to come out of the colossal termite mound, and everyone heard them due to the air holes in it. It took about seven minutes for the mound's 500 hundred inhabitants to safely exit the humble abode. Once they did, Chirrut quieted them down with his hands and gave Ezra the floor.

Ezra Bridger gave them his name first. Then he divulged his parents names, Mira and Ephraim Bridger. He explained to his new comrades that his parents had secretly broadcast anti-Imperial messages, from a radio station in their basement. Despite their best efforts, eventually they were discovered, and arrested by the Empire. This arrest wasn't official; Imperial "arrests rarely were. His parents like so many Imperail dissidents, had simply vanished one day. Chirrut and Baze, who'd been standing next to the boy, each put one of their hands on his shoulders as a small comfort. 6 years later, he'd decided to leave Lothal and see the rest of the Galaxy. He explained, in detail, how he'd emptied out a weapons crate, been brought aboard the ship, crawled through the air vents, reached the Bridge and heard of the Empires sinister project. The Jedha freedom fighters were visibly alarmed, and anxious when Ezra repeated the Sadistic Imperial officer's words about a weapon that functioned as a giant lightsaber, and how it could do to a planet what was done to a person. It was, without a doubt, a weapon of mass destruction. They were exceedingly astounded and impressed, when he explained how, using an Imperial schematic and bombs, disabled a Star destroyers life support system, piloted a tie fighter, shot up a hangar, landed the fighter, and last, but certainly not least, caused the destroyer to crash vertically and explode. They murmured amongst themselves.

" This kid is really bad ass!"

"For a child to do all that, it's unheard of!"

"I know pilots that couldn't bring down a cruiser"

"It takes years of experience to fly and plant bombs, and he does it in seconds. It's kind of scary."

"This child can help us show the Galaxy that hope isn't dead."

"My friends," Chirrut Imwe spoke up, silencing the blabber.

"It was the will of the force that Ezra Bridger accomplish what he has. People with skill and powers fail and die constantly. The force decides our fate. We don't use it, it uses us." Ezra was intrigued. He never heard of this particular philosophy from a force user before.

"It was also the will of the force that he discover this terrible project of the Empire's, so that we of the Whills could stop it."

"How are we going to stop a planet destroyer, Chirrut? We have a hard enough to time bringing down regular Imperial weapons and vessels?"

"You know the answer to that question my friend," Chirrut responded. "The force shall show us the way, or will send someone to show us the way. For now, we must rest and meditate. Everyone back inside. Ezra my boy, come with me."

The young Bridger followed the blind fighter through the crowd of resistance fighters, into the termite mound, and after a few minutes of navigating the tunnels, arrived at Chirrut Imwe's room. It was circular, and about two yards wide and six yards long. There were books, water canteens, scrolls, canned foot blankets and a makeshift mattress. Everything was well organized. The fact that Chirrut was blind made it all the more impressive.

" Take 3 long steps back my boy," the blind shaman said kindly. Ezra did as he was told suspiciously. Suddenly, Chirrut charged at Ezra with his staff raised. Though startled, Ezra moved quickly, and dodged with a "Whoah!". Chirrut swung his staff sideways, causing the blue haired orphan to duck. Then he swung at the boy's legs causing him to jump up. The blind Shaman than thrust his staff forward at Ezra, in a stabbing motion, causing him to back up, lose his footing, and fall on his butt. As Chirrut raised his staff for another attack, Ezra thrust his hand out, sending the blind man flying toward the sandbrick wall. His staff embedded it, while he fell on his back. Ezra looked on in utter shock at what he had done.

"It's just as I suspected Ezra Bridger, you are Force-sensitive," Chirrut Imwe explained to his confused guest. Ezra looked at Imwe and thought to himself,'I have the powers of a Jedi.'

"Why didn't you tell me you were testing me?" Ezra said frowning at Chirrut.

"If you didn't believe you were really in danger, your force powers might not have revealed itself," Chirrut patiently replied. Ezra didn't want to admit it, but the man had a point.

"So now what?"

"Now you meditate. Clear your mind of all thoughts. Focus inward, on yourself. The force will provide you with a solution to your and our current dilemma."

" Maybe I should just ask the force to help me," Ezra suggested.

"Yes, that might work," Chirrut agreed. Without another word he walked out of his room to give Ezra space.

The young Bridger sat down, legs crossed, and hands on his knees. He took a deep breath, and spoke to the force. Acknowledging it as the energy-field created by every life form, that surrounded and penetrated all living things in the Galaxy. His parents told him all about that. He explained that the Empire was building a device that would allow the Empire to wipe out whole planets, in order to terrorize the Galaxy into submission. He need to know exactly what this device was called, and people to help him destroy it. He implored the force to help him. Suddenly he heard a voice, disembodied in it's tone.''

 _"Jyn, my daughter, this is Galen your father. The Empire may have made me work on this genocidal project. But I swear, as sure I as I brought you into this world, I won't let the Empire take planets and people out of it. I will sabotage it, without making it obvious to the Imperials that I have.'_

Ezra then heard another disembodied voice, this time female in nature.

 _"Daddy I don't know where you are, or what the Empire has you working on. But I know you'll do evrything you can to stop it. I also know someday I'll find you. We'll be together again, and together we'll free you and everyone else from. the Empire's grip"_

Ezra opened his eyes wide, and then said, "Guys, I know what we need to do!"


End file.
